4/26/2013 Update: All of the trim has been touched up and 1st coat of poly is on.

Now that the carpenter is done and out of the house we took some time to touch-up all of the nail holes in the trim and put the 1st coat of poly on all of the red oak (steps, railing and posts). We decided to go with a clear satin poly on the red oak as not to hide any of the grain and boy did it come to life with just one coat. I plan to put at least 3 coats on the steps and railing, possibly more on the steps but we will see. Not sure that the pic quality does it justice but here are a couple shots.

Well drilling is still in progress....I am really starting to think we will hit China soon!!!

Next up is more poly on the red oak and painting all of the interior doors.

It has been a while since I updated so here is what is going on:
1) We are STILL drilling for water and currently at a depth of 200 feet and now into some fine sand material that they are trying to work with. We had budgeted for 125 feet so this is realy our first big overrun and if they are unable to get this spot to produce then we are pulling up the casing and start drilling in another spot......Yes, I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed.

2) We now have the septic tanks installed and they will be putting the Mound System in sometime in June. The septic company is really busy right now given the wet spring we have had and since we can get an occupancy permit with just tanks we went ahead and got those in last week while it was dry.

3) All of the interior doors are painted, re-hung and all hardware is in place.

4) Still waiting on water to grout my tile but if we do not hit it soon I may have to bring water in just to get this done and off my list.

5) Hoping to pour garage floor this week and then drywallers can come back to finish those walls and do some touch-up in the house. After that we can do the touch-up paint work.

6) Waiting for drywall repairs to be done before we put down the hardwood floor.

7) Countertops scheduled to go in this week (Thanks Mgboyd).

So, we spent the weekend getting large landscape boulders and doing some grading and have more to go. I will get a pic of the boulders we hauled in, needless to say they were heavy and I still have more to go. I worked a deal with a guy to trade him fill dirt for rocks so I hauled dirt to him all weekend and he would load the trailer with rocks for my return trip (1.5 hour round trip hauling roughly 8-9k lbs.)........it was a lot of windshield time!

Our saga with the water well finally came to an end yesterday in victory. While we are roughly 75 feet deeper than anticipated, we do now have a good well that produces water at a rate of roughly 9-10 gallons/minute.
So, the next step for this is to trench the line to the house, drop the permanent pump in, get the water tested and have a softener system built to properly treat it and we should be good to go. A major relief to say the least.

To cap the evening off, Mgboyd delivered and installed the counter tops and all I can say is the man has skills. I will get pics tonight but they really do not do the craftsmanship justice.
It's all coming together.